We have got to get into the habit of discussing ideas. You know, that thing the Greeks were doing post-Socrates. A 2,500 year old idea idea about how to evaluate ideas. Why should we do X. Why should we not do Y. What’s true. What’s false. What do we know. What do we not know. What’s it all mean.

“I am forming an impression that you are a stupid person because of this idea you have” has become a sort of default template for all arguing and we really have to bring it to a stop like a.s.a.p. There are many reasons why I say this.

For one thing, like Justice Scalia used to say, we have some very good people pushing some awful ideas. You’ve taken a wrong fork in the road if you’re attacking the person. You’re making it look like people risk friendships when they discuss politics, and you’re also lending a certain credibility to that. You’re providing evidence that it’s true, and people have to refrain from discussing politics to remain friends. This naturally means people need to deceive each other to maintain their friendships. It’s awkward, unworkable and it’s fracturing a good nation.

What follows is, or is not, a separate item on this list. Maybe it’s not. You decide. Smart people push dumb ideas. They do it all the time. We have some friends we know because I used to work with the husband. They’re the couple who seem to understand the spirit of Red Meat Saturday better than most — they’re into it for the meat and wine, and the fellowship. They absolutely get it, and I respect the husband’s level of intellect enormously. I’m sure he’s smarter than I am. But they’re liberals because of the wife, it really shows, and some of the ideas he pushes are totally idiotic. I would never presume they’re representative of his level of intellectual acumen. That would be…well…stupid.

Now this is another item on the list: It’s not persuasive. Really, think back. How many minds have you changed by telling people their political opinions make them idiots? You’ve probably seen it work as often as I have. Big fat zero. I can guarantee it will never work on me because a lifetime of foul-ups has dissuaded me from trying to convince people I’m smart. “Morgan’s brilliant, he’ll have no problem figuring this out” has consistently preceded awful disasters and I don’t want to hear it anymore. It also ends with a dangling preposition and I don’t like that, but that’s neither here nor there.

What if you run into someone who you’re genuinely convinced is a dumb person? Here is an important point about dumb people that demands some focus, although I think most people have figured it out already. To a dumb person, a normal person doesn’t look smart. Dumb people see normal people as dumb people. To you, it seems I’m describing this person with a wrong opinion who you’ve decided is dumb. Well, he sees you that way, and that remains true even if he really is the stupid person and you’re the brilliant genius. No matter how you cut it, it’s a stale mate. And it’s entirely disconnected from the pressing question of which idea is the better one.

Another item: When you call people idiots for subscribing to a certain idea, or failing to accept your own idea with sufficient enthusiasm, it may not convince them but it will certainly make you feel better about your position even though you might not have reason to feel good about it. It tends to make you into an intractable asshole.

Finally, and maybe this is the same item as the previous paragraph, again you decide. It’s just plain immature. It’s what little kids say on the playground. Third grade playground. “You’re dumb!!” When you have an opinion that’s different from someone else’s, but you can’t say why you have it, or why the other person has theirs, and you’re totally unprepared to argue about it in every meaningful way…that’s your go-to. Your one port in the storm. “You’re dumb!”

Knock it off. Now. I mean it.

For I am a bear of very little brain. There are lots of people smarter than me. Some of them have opinions different from mine. But I’m right and they’re wrong…I think…not that I’m super-duper sure about it, but that’s the way things are going to stay until you can present me with an argument about why I have it backwards, and they’re the ones who are right, and I’m wrong until I change my mind. But you have to make it a good argument. Something coherent and logical, based on known truths. Something people use when they’re older than 8.